Decision to halt gun show directions reversed

By Dug Begley :
January 3, 2013
: Updated: January 4, 2013 6:00pm

State transportation department officials on Thursday overruled a decision by the Houston district office to stop putting directions to gun shows on freeway message signs.

Texas Department of Transportation officials in Houston had suspended the use of the signs to direct motorists to firearms-related events, citing concerns about their use for a Houston gun show days after the Newtown, Conn., school shooting.

But the suspension didn't last long. State transportation officials reversed course after the Houston Chronicle reported the local decision.

"We use these dynamic message boards to help us direct traffic when there's an accident and at large events to keep the public safe," TxDOT spokeswoman Veronica Beyer said in a statement. "We will continue to use these message boards, like we did at this event and at similar events, to direct traffic and protect the public at any event meeting our established criteria."

Beyer said local authorities "made an error" in suspending the use of the signs, which officials in Houston and statewide credit with improving safety and traffic during large events.

The issue arose last month, after changeable signs on the freeway were used to help navigate people to the George R. Brown Convention Center in downtown Houston. The signs alerted drivers to the High Caliber Gun and Knife Show, which started the day after Adam Lanza killed 20 students and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School before killing himself on Dec. 14.

"We had several people say 'Hey, this is bad timing,' " said Stuart Corder, director of transportation operations for TxDOT's Houston district. "We understand there is a wide range of opinions and we've got to be sensitive to people's concerns."

A local decision

Corder on Wednesday said the decision was made locally to suspend the signs for gun shows. Some in the public agreed.

"It just took me aback given what was going on," said Kenneth Martinez, a Houston resident who tweeted about the freeway signs on Dec. 15.

Martinez said his main concern was the timing, when the country was reeling from the school shooting.

"Let's just have a little respect," he said. "I've got little kids that age, and I can think how devastating it would be to the families up there."

Corder said Houston's TxDOT office suspended the signs shortly after receiving complaints. Shows take place at the convention center roughly every other month.

But the signs, which often refer to events in general terms to avoid the appearance of advertising, are not politically-motivated. Beyer stressed safety is TxDOT's only motive.

Fewer lost drivers

For massive events, like the NCAA men's basketball tournament, Reliant Park general manager Mark Miller said, the signs are useful in avoiding construction and funneling traffic to and from site. A traffic engineer submits an analysis to TxDOT, who makes the final decision on what signs to use and what the signs should say.

"You do reduce the number of lost drivers," said Gerald Ullman, senior research engineer at the Texas A&M Transportation Institute in College Station. "I think the research does show fewer people take the wrong route."

Gun show organizers agreed, but said during the suspension that the shows would go on.

"We get a number of comments from the public at every show from people who said the sign helped them," said Tim Finucane, co-owner of Premier Gun Shows, which hosts shows in Houston, Pasadena and Stafford.

But Finucane said he understood the backlash to the signs.

"Obviously those shootings have raised a lot of sensitivity," he said.